Conventionally, in manufacturing processes for food products such as bread or candy, a carrier conveyor of predetermined length, such as a chain conveyor, belt conveyor, roller conveyor, or the like, is used to convey a metal carrier, such as a pan or plate, on which the food product materials are placed. The metal carrier is loaded onto and carried on the carrier conveyor.
In the bread manufacturing process in particular, for instance, in the carrier path linking the final fermentation process and baking process (for instance, tunnel ovens or the like) and other carrier paths, multiple chain conveyors that are loaded with and carry metal carriers on which food product materials are placed are connected to a predetermined length, put in a planar arrangement or in a steeply inclined arrangement, and carry the metal carriers to multiple manufacturing processes.
Moreover, metal chain conveyors and plastic chain conveyors (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication H7-309417) are known as conventional chain conveyors; but, in the majority of cases, in order to make it possible to set the shape, length, etc. at will, in order to make them lightweight, allowing for inexpensive use, and in order to allow for safe use, plastic chain conveyors made up of numerous plastic chain modules formed in predetermined widths and multiple bar-shaped plastic pins that link the front and back ends of these chain modules in a freely rotatable fashion are used.
In the plastic chain modules making up the plastic chain conveyor, for instance, the carrier surface (top surface) of the module body is smooth. The linking pieces at the front and back of the module body are provided with offset engaging parts that can be attached and detached interchangeably in the width direction of the conveyor. A through-hole is formed at the center of the side surface of the offset engaging part for inserting a plastic pin to link chain modules together so that they are engaged and freely rotatable.
An endless plastic chain conveyor of a predetermined length is constructed by linking the front and back ends of many plastic chain modules formed with a predetermined width using plastic connecting pins like those described. Multiple parallel strands (for instance, two strands spaced apart at a set distance) of these plastic chain conveyors are arranged at set intervals (matching the width of the carriers in order to load the carriers). And a metal carrier, on which food product material such as already described have been placed, is loaded onto and carried on the carrier surface (top surface) of the plastic chain conveyor.
If a carrier is carried by the plastic chain conveyor arranged in a horizontal state, the metal carrier is unlikely to fall from the plastic chain conveyor or become misaligned. But if the plastic chain conveyor is set up on a sharp incline (for instance, an angle of inclination of 30° to 60°, the metal carrier may slip from the smooth carrier surface (top surface) of the chain conveyor and fall from the plastic chain conveyor. Strong plate-shaped magnets having strong attractive force are placed at certain intervals within the plastic chain conveyors, which are arranged in multiple strands, in order to attract and hold the metal carrier.
But installing plate-shaped magnets within the plastic chain conveyors takes substantial time and effort because of the weight of the magnets and the high cost of the equipment and the plate-shaped magnets.